There seems to be a post about this issue once a month or so...see if you can find past threads. Lots of good advice....and lots of people saying this is common for 4-6 year olds. I would have to disagree that any child would want to be "wet" on purpose, ie attitude. Who would want to have to go through the scolding, or whatever happens in your own home, the clothes changing, the "stop what you are doing so we can deal with this" and the embarrasment. What could she possibly be gaining by doing this on purpose? Bladder training??? That makes me laugh. Seems unlikely. I always recommend chiropractic care. I have said it past threads, and will say it again. The spine sends out the messages. If the spine is out of whack, and certain nerve endings are "pinched" the message may not be getting there as quickly as it needs to. Ie, dribbling, night wetting, etc. Leaking before mind realizes bladder was full. Children's spines are almost always out of whack, sometimes minor, sometimes major, just because of the way they live, fall, tumble, etc. If your insurance covers Chiropractic care, find one that sees children, (lots do), and talk him/her about her issues. At the least, it will be much less invasive that a special doctor, and it you feel it didn't help, then you can go the route of a specialist. I speak from experience. My own son (age 5) constantly dribbled, even sometimes full-on wet, and almost every single night wet the bed, no matter if we limited waters, used bathroom before bed, etc. The day issues were so aggravating. It was almost like he didn't even realize it. I would see it and say "Ooooh, son, did you pee?", and he would look down and be like "uh, I guess I did". It flabbergasted me why he acted like he didn't even know, and I would sometimes think that was all an act. But I couldn't see a child that age being THAT good of a actor. Starting see a Chiropractor weekly and within a month or so, no more.

Thanks all for the replies. I can see valid points on both sides. In the end, I am still dismayed that a curriculum that is published, and marketed for children to do on their own, without alot of parental teaching, would have such a topic. As some have said here, their child in this age range 5th-8th know about abortion. As others have said, me included, our children do not know about abortion. Will it be a conversation that we have with our son, most definately, but it will wait until he is older. Since he is only 10 and is not exposed to sexual topics, there would no sense in exposing him to abortion topic either. That's kind of my point, a topic like this should not be in a curriculum for this age group as you never know where the child will be in their life. Also add in the fact that it is marketed to HSers, who tend to lean towards the "sheltered" side of life with these topics, and again you take the chance of exposing a child to a very adult topic before their parent has had a chance to. I don't think that is a chance that ANY publisher creating curriculum for Homeschoolers, ESPECIALLY a Christian one, should be taking. I am just happy that this time I had the chance to pre-read his lessons. Often, I am too busy and can't get ahead of him like this time. High school curriculum? Okay, I can see that. Most High School students have been educated about sex, the results and abortion is a hot topic in life, so they most likely have heard about it, know what it is, and have made their judgement about it. College curriculum? Of course, college is all about hot topics. So in the end, I have went through the book and used white-out on all mentions of abortion. Guess what, the curriculum and lessons are no less without it. Guess it wasn't all that pertinent to the lesson. I will be writing to the publisher. thanks again for the interesting discussion! K

Okay, so my DS10/5th grade just started the Apologia Jump In writing curriculum. I was previewing the lessons ahead of him, and saw at least two so far that mention abortion. Like giving an example of a persuasion (think it was that one, could be a another type of paper, can't remember at this moment) paper, using abortion as the topic, with a short paragraph about abortion. The something similiar a few lessons after that. What!?!?!?!? I mean, I think Jump IN is marketed for 6th-8th graders, right? So maybe my son is a little young for it, but even so, is this a topic that needs to be discussed in this format for 6th-8th graders??? Yes, I know the topic will come up in life, regardless of your view point, but in CURRICULUM??? There wasn't any other topic that could have been used?? For goodness sake, the topic in the previous lesson was why cats make better pets!!! Maybe my son is a little sheltered about such worldly ways, one of the benefits of HSing, if you ask me. It doesn't even matter what my view is on the abortion topic, the point is I don't think he needs to be exposed to the topic at this age, in curriculum that is specifically written for the child to do almost independently. Am I over-reacting???? I am probably going to go through at white-out those parts, as again, it does not seem pertinent to the lesson. K

I am planning for next year, for American History for 6th grade and to carry through to 7th grade. I have been planning for some time to use Joy Hakim's History of the U.S. I may have used them through K12 as a independent, or bought the Teacher's Guides from John Hopkins and used the free stuff from PBS.org. Then I read there is some controversy about Joy Hakim's books. I googled it and sure enough, found some sites that talk about the inaccurracies in her books. hmm, something to ponder. Then I heard about All American History. It looks good. It looks interesting. The price is right. Has anyone one used either or both and tell me what you love or don't love.... thxs K

Wow, yeah, can't empathize with ya, we love them in our house. And we are secular homeschoolers, go figure! We just glib over the religious mentions that pop up here and there. We have tried other sciences, never seemed to stick with them for more than a few months, and my son doesn't remember alot from them. But I am loving the whole in-depth of doing one basic topic for a while, year or so. We are doing Swimming Creatures, and the book is just so interesting. My son can tell you lots of things about aquatic animal life. We have Astronomy and that will be next for us. I am looking forward to it! k

Do you know how to get in contact with the person selling? That is EXACTLY what we are looking for...organic farm, rural NC, house is livable, but might need work......etc etc etc etc.. We look almost on a daily basis for something like this. I would love to get more info. thanks K

You need the kit....it's been a couple of years since we used Shurley, but if I remember right, the workbook doesn't give any explanation, just the "work"....the explanation of what you are supposed to do is in the TM. Plus, if you are not used to their diagramming and abbreviations, etc, then you won't know what to explain to your student. Also, at least for me, it has been SOME years since I looked this closely at grammar. Ask me four years ago (when we started Shurley in 1st grade) what a preposition or object of a preposition was, and I would not have had a clue, let alone be able to teach it. K

I didn't go but Grandma took my two boys (10 and 5) and they all said it was good. Even my DS10 who is very "picky" and prefers action/superhero type movies, said we need to get it on DVD when it comes out. Plus, the star, Emma Roberts is homeschooled! I know most child actors do their schooling on set with a tutor, but I read a article about that specifically said she was homeschooled. K

....unfortunately for us, my DH was laid off from his real career and the only thing that he could find locally is with a credit card company. They have a HUGE call center about 2 miles from us, they have good benefits, 4 day work week, and they hired him. He works there until he finds something better, so we can finanicially float. Yes, he will repeatedly try to "save" your cancellation. Yes, he will try to "sell" you things. Hopefully, he will not yell at you, but has been known to be sarcastic to rude customers. But guess what, that is his job (not the sarcastic part :). He gets rated on how many "offers" he does. He gets rated on alot of things he may do on the call, the things that annoy you. He is just doing his job. He is happy to have a job at all in this economy, although he HATES the job. He is just a person. Bet alot of those other people at the companies you mention are the same. Other people's shoes. K

My Side of the Mountain and the sequel to it.

My DS10 is the exact same way. As a matter of fact, in our History program (K12), each day he has the option of writing a short narration paragraph of the days' lesson (3-4 sentences) or drawing a picture. The picture wins every day. He has a beautiful History notebook though :)! But he writing issues really came to light this past semester as he was taking a Marine Biology class via co-op. It was taught by a outside paid teacher, a Science specialist type, and he was required to write a few different papers. It was a awful experience for him AND for me. I wanted SO badly to correct his papers, and make them so much better. I didn't but it was then that I realized we really needed to get to work on writing. So over the holidays, I bought Jump In. He has went from complaing about from day one, (just because it was a writing program, not anything about the actual program itself), to doing it without a complaint (miracle for him). Although it comes with a TM, the book is written to the student. It has a interesting theme to it, and each lesson only takes 10-15 minutes, at least in the early stages. I think it is a great starting point to help him not dread writing so much. Once he completes this program, I think he will be ready for a more intensive program. hth K

We used Saxon K for the first half of K, as it was given to me, all I bought was the manupalitve kit. I saw no purpose to the Meeting book, guess it was for learning the calendar, and also patterning. After four months, my son did learn basic stuff, but overall, I thought the program was boring. Bought BJU, using it for the last month. LOVE IT. Colorful, has a story line, extra activities if wanted (for example, we made triangle hats out of newspaper on the day we did triangles). BTW, both have scripted TM's if that is what you are looking for. But that being said, why are you going away from Horizons again? If your child is doing well with Horizons, I think both BJU or Saxon would be a back-step as I have read/heard that Horizons tends to be advanced. hth K

We have studied different religions as part of our History program (k12), but we do not use the bible. We have a couple on the bookcase. To me, they are just stories, and not really relavent to anything that we are studying. K

Many families that I know of my holistic circle of life use Chiropractic care for bed-wetting issues. My own son, age 5, was a bed-wetter every single night. We did all of the normal things, limit water, go before bed, etc etc. Nothing helped. Here is the thing. Medications might work, but they are only masking the issue, not correcting it. Some children will outgrow the issue on their own, as their bladder grows stronger, and they start to listen to their body more. But some children will not "outgrow" it, because it is a problem that can not be outgrown. Read more: Spines, and the spinal cord, is your central nervous system. This is where all the messages to the body get relayed, right? So if one of the message centers are not "right", the message doesn't get through. Children's spines are often misaligned, ever so slightly, due to the nature of their lifes. Constant falling, tumbling, wrestling, etc etc. So if the spine is not aligned, it can cause nerves in certain areas (depending on where the alignment is off) to be "dulled". It's not a problem when he is awake, because he is more alert. But combine the fact that he is sleeping and the nerve that gets the message about having to urinate might be "dulled", and there you have your problem. So we took our own son, after having a month of once a week Chiropractic care, no more bed-wetting. Nothing else was changed. Look into it. Research it online. Check to see what your insurance covers. Call around to see what rates the chiropractor's in your area are charging, if you don't have insurance. Honestly, a few months of this could make a world of difference for your son's self-esteem. It can't hurt to try before medicating. hth K

It should be a gradual process, first starting with the subjects that come easiest to your child. Second, it is important to have curriculum that is designed for independent work, I think. My 10DS, 5th grade, and the only thing I do with him is 1. K12 History (that is designed for him to do alone, but I love it, so we do it together. 2. Prima Latina 3. 50 States Geography (mostly I am doing flashcards with him) He does alone Math (TT7) Grammar (Growing with Grammar) Science (Apologia Zoo II, except we do experiments together) Vocab (Wordly Wise) Jump In Writing Program. My time with him is at most an hour....he has about one and half hours on his own......of course we are interacting, I am answerign questions here and there, etc etc. But you see here that I picked all top curriculum but all that are designed TO the student, no teacher's manual neccessary. This is the first year we have done it this way, and I am much happier, and feel as if he is learning some independence, plus gives me time with the K5 and 2 year old DS's. K

I explain it that different families do school differently, private, public, and homeschool. I try very carefully not to run down the public schools, even though I have alot of bad thoughts about them, you never know what life will bring, and if there was ever a day when my children had to attend a PS, I don't what them thinking it is a horrible thing. K

I guess it is no different than any other sport. Baseball starts at 4 (T-ball). Tackle football starts at 5 (uh no way, THAT is silly!). Karate starts at 4-5. Basketball 5-6. Soccer 4-5. They pretty much all start young. But I have found that the younger ages are mostly non-competitive, don't even keep score...it is more about learning the basics. K

We have two of the Avenues of the Mind, Middle Ages and Early Modern. Love them! Stickers are too cute, and blank ones to make your own. K

There are Star Wars cards, but there is no "game" behind them like the Pokemon cards. They basically have pictures of the movie scenes. You can buy them at any major retailer, in the "card" section, where they sell all the Pokemon/Yugi-oh cards, usually toward the registers. I might suggest the new lightsaber they have out now..it comes with several different parts, so you can build your own lightsaber...It is about $25.00 hth K

I would definately wait. We just started PL with my DS10/5th grade, only because I just learned about it. At his level, he is finding it very easy. This is a GOOD thing, because there is no fighting/complaining/stress. Since he has a solid base in grammar, the grammar parts of PL are simply review, not new ideas. Which means he can simply focus on the Latin. He can easily see the deritative association. So overall, he has a positive thought of Latin. He did not have the same thoughts with Spanish attempts a few years ago. I have come to find that there are some things that a younger student CAN learn/do but sometimes it just comes a bit easier if you wait a few years. The beauty of HSing is you can do your own schedule. There is no harm in doing it when you think your child is truly READY for it. Some schools might be doing Latin at a early age, but they don't tell how many students may struggle with it. K

I try to keep the piles about the same, as DS5 and DS2's gifts are usually MUCH cheaper than DS10 who wants all of the latest/greatest electronics gadgets. One PS3 game for him is $59.99 while I could get 2-4 gifts for that $$ for the youngers. Although, in the last few years, due to this, we have been discussing lightly but often this with my DS10, how his gifts are more, therefore it would look like he got less, etc. He is at an age where he can understand that. Last year we tried to implement a "one gift" policy. One from Santa, one from family and one from Grandma (who always goes WAY WAY overboard but usually only half of her gifts are ever used :(). Unfortunately this didn't work out as planned, but we are still trying to do this policyt this year too.

We covered both in 4th grade math using Calvert. You could always look at any state's scope and sequence...most are online. hth K

Although the author says the books are for K-6th in elementary level, I would hestitate using them with the younger crowd unless they had a keen interest. I know some families do, but I just could not see my K5 DS sitting still for Zoo2, and I bought Astronomy thinking he has an interest in space and would sit for this..but nope. Couldn't even get through a page. That being said, I DO LOVE these books. We just found them this year, so my DS 5th grade is doing Zoo2 (Swimming Creatures). Definately NOT kiddish for a 6th grader. Just the opposite, written on their level so you have very little actual teaching to do. I will have my DS10 continue with these books, Anatomy is coming out next year, and we will do Astronomy as a family. And hope to make it through the whole series eventually with my DS5. I love the experiments. They are fun without being ALOT of work for me. hth K

If you can wait, the author of the Apologia science books for the elementary levels, Jeanne Fulbright, just annouced that her Anatomy book will be released in summer 09. Her books are written well and beautiful to look at. K

It's our first year using Wordly Wise 3000 for vocab. I decided to use this as it is so highly rated in the HSing world. Well, I was talking to my neighbor child, who is in 4th at PS. He said the only homework he had to do was his "Wordly Wise". I was like "what!?!?" to myself. I asked him about it and he described it so I knew it was the same thing. So, yes, our county is one of the highest rate in Florida, but to me, doesn't say much since Florida is usually at the bottom of the barrel anyway. But PS system smart enough to pick out Wordly Wise!?!? Ugh, even though it's not WW3000's fault, it suddenly dropped a notch in my belt :(. K